Femicide is preventible according to Nova Scotia study

Community Action, June 16, 2003

HALIFAX -- Women murdered by their abusive partners (femicide) is both preventable and predictable says a groundbreaking research on femicide in Nova Scotia.

The two-year study, which was completed by Jaclyn Campbell, a nursing professor at Johns Hopkins University, is the result of information gathered from interviews with families and friends of the femicide.

"It sounds like grim research, but what is hopeful is that rates of intimate-partner violence has gone down," Campbell said. "There's more attention paid to domestic violence."

The research, which was presented by Campbell at a seminar sponsored by the Metro Interagency Committee on Family Violence in late May, is also being incorporated into new practices developed by the provincial Justice Department. Those practices are the result of a review in 2000 following the shooting death of Lori Lee Maxwell by her estranged husband after 17 months of escalating violence. Her husband then killed himself.

Although the Nova Scotia Justice Department's new protocol is not yet final, Campbell's research will be used to help develop frameworks whereby a number of agencies will be communicating and working together to enhance a woman's safety as her case proceeds through the system.

For instance, a police officer responding to an incident of domestic violence would complete a risk-assessment tool, a 24-point checklist designed to look for predictors of eventual femicide, while the victim would be asked to complete a 15-point risk assessment. If there are enough predictors in the assessments, the file is red tagged as a "high risk" for femicide. Then representatives from different agencies would talk with the victim to discuss options for her safety.

Stressing that the most important part of the protocol is the woman's involvement, Campbell said "women tend to stay in abusive relationships because they don't realize the danger they're in or because they just don't know how to leave. Empowering victims through discussions could literally mean the difference between life and death."

Possible warning signs that an abusive relationship will turn deadly include:

* prior domestic violence against woman,

* escalating violence against the woman,

* perpetrator unemployed,

* if woman had left partner in year before violence or was in the process of leaving,

* ready access to a gun by perpetrator,

* prior threats by perpetrator to kill woman or self,

* sexual assault on woman,

* presence of alcohol or drug abuse by perpetrator.